Carbon footprints are one of the mayor negative influences to the Earth. When we think carbon footprints one usually thinks about carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide has impacted the economy and the lives of many people. Some people depend on carbon dioxide; proof of this is cap and trade. Cap and trade is known to be the primary solution for decreasing the use of carbon in order to make the atmosphere healthier. When I first heard about the goals of cap and trade I thought it sounded great and I was glad an idea like this was finally being put into plan. One positive consequence we would get from the result of this plan is the reduction of ppm missions by 80% from 387 to 350 by 2050. But how exactly does cap and trade work? Cap and trade works starting with the government giving permits to allow a specific group of people to continue carbon production. These permits would become scarcer as time passes in order to stay under the cap, or goal. So far the plan sounds good. People who have excess carbon can then trade it with those who need carbon. This all sounds like a great plan but here is where it starts getting tricky. Cap and giveaway are free permits given to polluters. The more one pollutes the more free permits they are given. This sounds ridiculous because you are allowing people who pollute to keep doing so! Then there are offset permits, which are given to companies who reduce carbon to be sold to polluters. This is also crazy! People who pollute are just being given reasons to continue this harmful habit. It seems as if people have the right idea in mind but they are not taking the right actions. According to Annie Leonard, the best way to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide is to leave the carbon in the ground where it belongs. I hope we can come up with a much better plan to reduce carbon in our atmosphere so we can dismiss this unnecessary plan called Cap and Trade.